Water Lily
by sweetsilverdusk
Summary: It is 1963, the year of the Cold War between the States and Russia. Young Christine Daae, a muted cleaner, accidently discovers a secret within the organization she works for. With an understanding between her and Experiment E, they travel together on a path that will either bring worlds together or shatter them apart. Based on the trailer for the new movie "The Shape of Water"
1. Chapter 1: Muted

_September 1963_

If I were to tell you about her, the angel without a voice, what could I say?

I would tell you that she is relatively hard to pick out in a crowd, for she looks almost ordinary; with her thick golden curls always tied back with a black ribbon, pale skin, and sad blue eyes she is the image of an ordinary worker. She is also dressed always in a teal blue cleaner's dress with white collar, arm cuffs, and buttons. On occasion, the most colorful item she would wear is a red, bright but slightly faded, sweater, something her mother once wore before her death after her birth.

Her name is Christine Daae, and she is also a mute.

When her father, Admiral Gustave Daae, was sent off to war during World War II, she was taken into the care of a Mrs. Antoinette Giry and her child, Marguerite Giry. Since Christine and Meg were close in age, the two spent much time together, laughing, playing, and oblivious to the War. However, even tragedy can strike without a moment's notice.

A telegram reached the Giry's home a few weeks before the beginning of the end. Gustave's group had been captured and killed by a group of Nazi spies that had been working within the command to destroy the company. Gustave had managed to save some of his charges before he was torturered and killed.

It caused Christine a great grief that she never smiled or laughed again. Her voice had gone silent and she never spoke again after that moment. The loss of her father, doctor's told Mrs. Giry, had caused Christine's voice to silence itself. It was a very rare case indeed. Trapped, but not gone.

It was then that Christine learned signage to help her new guardians communicate with her. She often sign small stuff, like how her day went or if she wanted something particular for dinner.

And even now, as days go by with her cleaning and scrubbing the halls of a laboratory, she still manages to sign and strike a small conversation with Meg, who also works beside her.

The day usually goes as follows:

6:30 am – Wake up

6:45-7am – Shower, if possible

7-7:20am – Dress and hair

7:20-7:45am – Breakfast with Mrs. Giry and Meg

8:00am – Leave with Meg to work

8:15am – Punch in

8:15am-12pm – Clean Top Floors 1-3

12:15pm-1pm – Lunch

1:15pm-5pm – Clean Basement Floors 5 & 6

5:15pm – Punch Out

5:30pm-6:15pm – Dinner

6:30pm-7:15pm – Free Time

7:30pm – Bed Time

In the end, it was always worth it…

However, again, fate is a fickle thing, and has the tendancy to change and impact the lives that surround it.

It was on a Monday afternoon when Christine and Meg were working in the Basement on floor 5, behind door number 666, when the men brought in an overly-large fish tank.

Now, the room in which Christine and Meg had been assigned to that day was at one point an old storage room that was 20 by 15 feet wide and 17 feet tall. Overly-large for old storage, but perfect for the massive containers that were being brought in. The biggest of the containers was about the size of a swimming pool, 9 feet deep and 9 by 10 feet wide.

Christine watched quietly as the men brought in another tank, this one slightly smaller and filled with water. As they began to fill to larger tank more water, Christine couldn't help but be drawn to the container that was just brought in.

It wasn't known to many, but when Christine was still a little girl, she loved swimming when she and her father owned the cabin on the coast. She would always run into the water on the warm summer days and laugh in delight when the water pushed her back up on the shore.

It was a calming sensation to feel, surrounded by liquid that felt like silk. Christine often loved it more than singing with her dad, and just being near it reminded her of all the happy times before her father passed away.

She began to stroke the glass, watching the water within the container move back and forth, remembering her childhood, when suddenly, a webbed hand reached out and touched the glass under her hand.

She gave a silent yelp and jumped away, knocking over a pail of soapy mopping water.

The metal bucket hit the rock flooring with a loud crash, causing everyone to look up and stare at the woman who knocked it over.

"Christine! Are you ok?" Meg came over to check on her friend.

Christine began signing furiously, 'There's something in that tank over there.'

"What in God's name is going on here!?"

Both women turned to see the furious face of their employer.

"What do you think you're doing!?"

Notes:

Hi all! Pleasure to see my lovely readers again!

So, this is going to be my very first chaptered Phanfic. The idea recently came to me after I saw the new trailer for "The Shape of Water," which is coming out later this year. And if you haven't seen it… WATCH IT BECAUSE IT'S AMAZING!

Anyway, this story is going to follow some of the similarities from the movie trailer as well as the Phantom of the Opera and Creature from the Black Lagoon.

As always, characters don't belong to me, they belong to their respected owners.

Please R&R and send love!

Also Posted Here: /works/11580072/chapters/26022510

***Please Remember:

Because this is a work in Progress, the ratings and warnings may change at any time. Thank you for understanding.


	2. Chapter 2: Secrets to Keep

Mr. Carlos Gundichelli wasn't an overly large man, but he could be intimidating. With his fiery red hair to match his temper, it wasn't a wonder that many considered him the devil in disguise.

Then again, unlike many during this time, Carlos came from money.

His family had donated hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to research labs during the War and in some ways, had expected to rise at the top. Even so, the experiments and science behind it all intrigued Carlos, and thus began his career as a scientist in experimentation.

After attending Harvord, graduating with a degree in business and DNA experimentation, he got wind of a strange creature that was lurking in the Amazon river in Brazil.

Apparently, this creature had been attacking scientists and their assistances when they were asleep in their beds. A quick clean cut, so to say, and the intruders in it's mind were gone. So Carlos rounded up a group of his best men and other scientists, including Doctor Raoul Changy and Doctor Ubaldo Piangi, and travel to South America.

Speculation about if this creature was real or not traveled through the travelers' minds as they searched for nearly a month for any trace of a sea monster that looked like a man. Dr. Changy and Carlos worked closely, determining where and when the creature would strike or walk.

"If what the articles say is true," Raoul murmured, "this creature would mostly spend it's time within the water, then wait until nightfall to walk… if it does leave the water."

"It would have to leave the water at some point, wouldn't it?" Carlos asked.

"Not if it has gills and needs to breath underwater," Raoul replied, "and from what we learned so far, it's diet consists of small fish and underwater plants. There's no way it would need to come to the surface."

And the facts proved true.

To capture the creature, they laid out a cage underwater with raw fish meat hidden within. After only a few mintues, the alarm went off and the cage was pulled up. The sight that greeted them was truly terrifying.

Now, Carlos Gundichelli would not risk this asset to his company if two women, cleaners and below him in every aspect, revealed what it was.

He sat at his desk with the two women sitting in two chairs in from of him. Hands folded in front, he glared at the two of them.

"You both understand that this is a top-secret organization," he began, "And anything you say will be held against you in a court of law."

Both women nodded before the blonde signed to him.

"What does she say?" Gundichelli asked.

The other woman, a fair-skinned medium girl with chocolate brown curls, answered, "Christine's wondering if we'll lose our jobs."

"She's deaf?"

"Mute, sir. She can hear you."

Carlos looked over the girl called Christine before replying, "No, as long as you promise to never speak a word of what you saw. I can be very persuasive when it comes to what you might have seen. Your job is to get in and get out. Are we clear?"

Both women nodded before Gundichelli excused them.

As Christine followed Meg out of Gundichelli's office, she turned around and stared at her friend.

"What the hell were you thinking?! We could've lost our jobs! And it's almost impossible to find work for women at this point!"

 _'_ _I'm sorry,'_ Christine signed, _'but I was curious. I didn't think that there would be anything in there.'_

Meg groaned and rubbed her face with her hands, "Fine… I get it. Just don't do it again, okay? I'd like to keep my job."

 _'_ _Promise.'_

As the two of them headed back to their schedule, Christine couldn't help but wonder what it was that was lurking beneath the water.


	3. Chapter 3: The Creature

It had always been like this for him, calm and quiet.

From what he remembered from long ago, no one had looked at him like that… ever. The strange girl that had approached his tank was different from the other humans who had captured him. It wasn't hard to notice… after all, she didn't apparently _see_ him in the murky water.

It pulled his heart strings when his hand pressed against the glass and watched as she jumped back in terror. He had seen that look before…

When he was "born," it was a known fact to his kind that his mother, a beautiful lake siren, had accidently dropped his egg during the growing process. When he hatched, he was very different compared to his brothers and sisters. The first thing he heard was screams.

They were coming from all around him. His beautiful mother, who was part mer, had stared at him before closing her eyes, and turned away.

"You are no child of mine," she whispered, "you are a creature that will always looked upon as a monster."

She did, however, allow him to travel with her and his siblings, until he was five years old. It was then that she abandoned him, taking his siblings with her and leaving the underwater cave they had lived in for some time.

The first few days were frightening for him. He stayed in the cave and waited for their return, watching as schools of fish traveled by. But, as more and more time went on, he knew that he was left to fend for himself.

As he grew older, he learned what he could from others that lived nearby. With mostly bull sharks, crocs, and piranhas as his teachers and companions, the tricks of capturing prey seemed almost too easy. He often wondered how stupid some of these creatures could be.

It wasn't until his twentieth year that he had found something amazing.

Although he looked like a monster, in some of the other water creature's eyes, he was a guardian. There had been plenty of times when he worked with some of the smaller, friendlier creatures that lived on the bottom. Also, they seemed to be enchanted by his voice. When he spoke, they seemed to calm in the efforts to get away. It was then that he had learned what some would call kindness.

But, even the most calming of times have to come to an end.

It was on that faithful day, while doing his patrol over his section of the river, that he came across something foreign. It looked like a large box with bars on three sides and an opening. In the center of this object was what looked like a pile of raw meat. He cocked his head, trying to figure it out what the heck it was, when he heard something.

He looked up and saw the bottom of a large boat. He had seen many of them come through the area, but never approached them. What he knew of these "humans" was very little, only that they were dangerous and killed when they wanted to. They had often came on shores, collecting small rocks and shells, and some even ventured to his domain, gathering some of the underwater plants and larger rocks. Of course, he remained hidden, and watched.

The ones he had seen before seemed pretty harmless, but these ones might be the dangerous kind. If this was a trap, then these humans needed a scare.

He swam away, then stopped a good couple feet away, than swam with all his might, breaking through the cage. However, that seemed to alert the humans above. He dived to get away, when a roped fishing net scooped him up.

Using his clawed hand and sharp teeth, he tore at the net, unable to free himself.

The water disappeared from around him, and he heard gasps and turned slightly to see shocked faces similar to his own.

Then a voice rose from the crowd, "What the hell is that thing?"

That, was about two months ago, then he was brought here. They kept him in water similar to that of his home, but it wouldn't be the same.

There were no plants on the bottom of this cell, only a hard rocky floor, and no colored fish swimming freely. No cave, no friends, no nothing.

He yanked slightly on the collar that the humans had placed around his neck, but it would be of no use. His strength had left him after being probed with the electric poker so many times and being pulled from the water so he couldn't breathe. The scars from these humans had destroyed his scaled body, so much that the few scales that were left held no more shimmer from the light.

He traced one scar thoughtfully, then heard soft tapping sounds.

Lifting his head, he looked up to see a figure had approached his new water filled home. It looked like the human he had seen earlier, the one who had been tapping against his "carrier."

Slowly, he swam upward. His head poked up and watched with fascination as the girl smiled softly at him.

How could she not be afraid?

Chapter 3!

Feedback needed! What do you all think so far?


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